“Lunar chess ” ( English “Selenus chess set” , sometimes translated as “Selenus chess”, “Selenus-style chess”, in England such chess was close to the “ barley grain ” set, English “Barleycorn” , which was distributed from 1840 to 1910 [1] [2] ; in the UK , the Selenus chess set was often called the “ tulip set”, the English “Tulip Sets” or the “garden set”, the English “Garden Sets” [3] ) - set chess pieces, which became widespread in the 17th-19th centuries, mainly in the countries of Northern and Central Europe. Floral motifs are characteristic of it (contemporaries also noted its proximity to the shape of the skeleton ). It is generally believed that it is first encountered in the illustration for the chess textbook of Augustus the Younger , published in 1616 [4] [5] .
Content
The history of the chess set and the term
In 1616, the book “Chess, or the Royal Game” ( German: Das Schach oder Königsspiel ) was published in Leipzig . Its author is Augustus the Younger (1579-1666), the future Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . He received a good education, in 1594-1599 he studied in Rostock and Tübingen , after long trips, he settled in Hitzacker for 30 years, doing research. Augustus became the rector of two universities, collected a library of 180 thousand volumes. After the death of Friedrich Ulrich Braunschweig-Wolfenbuttelsky in 1634, the middle line of the Braunschweig-Wolfenbuttelsky house died out, and Augustus the Younger took possession of the Principality of Wolfenbuttelsky. Under his rule, the end of the Thirty Years War [6] .
The main part of the book “Chess, or the Royal Game” is a translation of the work of the Spanish chess player Ruy Lopez de Segura “A book about the ingenuity and art of playing chess” (Augustus bought it in Italian in Venice while traveling in Italy ), but the author added and information he knows about chess from his own trips to the European continent or from other books. August, in particular, first mentioned the chess village of Štrobek . August also writes about chess in Russia: “Russians, or Muscovites, play chess very witty and with special zeal; they are so skillful and experienced in this game that, in my opinion, it is not easy for other nations to compete with them ”(he obtained this information in the notes of Ambassador Paul Oderborn made in 1581) [4] .
As the author of the book, Augustus hid behind the pseudonym Gustavus Selenus ( lat. Gustavus Selenus ), Gustavus - Augustus in Latin [4] , Selenus - on behalf of the Greek goddess Selena (Moon). The generic name of the Dukes of Luneburg comes from the word "Luna" . Under the same pseudonym, he published his other book, Cryptomenyticae et Cryptographiae libri IX , which was printed in Luneburg in 1624 [6] .
An engraving on copper depicting players at the board was placed in the book. In one of the three characters depicted at the table at the game of chess, the author of the composition is captured and playing chess. The illustration was done by the Dutch engraver Jacob van der Hayden . They play with figures that, as some historians suggest, could have arisen even before the engraving was created (some historians insist that this is the first image [7] ), but they got the name "in the style of Selenus" (or "moon chess" ) in honor of the author of this book. Its popularity was due not only to the value of its content, the duke sent out copies of his book of the aristocracy of the German principalities, including the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation [4] .
Some researchers believe that the first image of "moon chess" was created fifty years earlier than the book of Augustus the Younger was published. Moreover, they refer to the miniature “ Duke Albrecht V and his wife Anna playing chess ” in the “Treasure Book of the Duchess Anna of Bavaria”, made by the artist Hans Milich in 1555 for Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria and his wife Anna . Based on the dating of this miniature, the chess historian John Crumiller establishes a wide distribution time interval for “lunar chess” from the 1560s to the 1890s [1] .
Kit Features
Such chess is often carved from bone and has a vertically oriented structure, decorated with luxurious decor. The shape of such high deliberately complicated figures is characterized by elements of floral motifs, the petals of stylized flowers are always directed upward, extending to the sides of the central column [5] . The most impressive in the set of art critics consider the figures of the king and queen . Their upper part is “multilevel galleries”, which have three tiers for the king (in some cases two), and for the queen two tiers (in rare cases, one) [1] .
The “moon chess” is characterized by verticality characteristic of the Gothic style, openwork carved ornament , art critics suggest that the goal was to combine reality and illusion, familiar to the Baroque style that prevailed at the beginning of the 17th century. Contemporaries noted the proximity of such figures to the shape of a skeleton:
“The upper part of the figures is crowned with a symbolic skeleton, in the image of which the almighty death laughs at a chess game”
- Natalya Ivanova. Lunar Chess [4]
The painting by the French artist Remy-Fursi Descarsen (1747-1793), “ Portrait of Doctor de S. playing chess with Death ”, depicts just such a variant of chess pieces, which was generally not widely used in France. The Chess Museum of Russia features two Selenus, both made of ivory. One was created in Germany at the end of the 18th century, with figures of white and red color (a tradition that existed almost until the 19th century). Another made in Denmark at the beginning of the XIX century [4] .
The style of chess pieces “Selenus” was popular in Germany and Northern Europe for about three centuries, slightly changing [5] . In the XVIII century, sockets of figures began to be made heavier - this option in Germany was called the "crow's nest" [4] .
The shapes of this kit are very fragile and easily damaged. Museums and private collections store a large number of such sets, but very few complete and undamaged sets are represented. Experts note that it is very difficult to accurately date such sets. They were created for a long time, and the form almost did not change. Max Euwe believed, although agreed, that he was unable to prove his point of view that in the oldest sets of “moon chess” the king has only one tier of a perpendicular gallery around the vertical axis, and such a gallery itself has no teeth, the king and queen do not high acute-angled pommel (or only the king has it), the rook has a pommel not in the form of a toothed gallery, but in the form of a small ball. Not all of these elements may be present at the same time. The sets of the late XIX - early XX centuries may be an exception in this respect, since they try to copy the oldest samples. Later versions, however, are easily recognizable as they lose the elegance of antique sets. In addition to bone, sets were made of wood, lead or tin [8] .
The creation of chess pieces “in the style of Selenus” attracts the attention of modern carvers as well (Yuri Koryakov created and presented to the Chess Museum a set of sandalwood and mahogany , carved in the tradition of the 17th century) [4] . Sets of such figures are made and sold by a limited number of copies [9] . At present, pieces and a board of the following sizes are common for “moon chess”: a king - 10.5, a pawn - 3.8, a board - 37 x 37 centimeters [10] .
Gallery
A large number of sets of "chess in the style of Selenus" belongs to the Schaakmuseum Max Euwe-Centrum in Amsterdam [8] :
Unknown master of the XVIII century, Germany. Moon chess
Unknown master of the XVIII century, Germany. Moon chess
Unknown master, Germany, circa 1800. Lunar chess
Unknown master of the beginning of the XIX century, Germany. Lunar chess
See also
- Courier Chess
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 Crumiller, Jon. The Collector: Dating Sets Using Artwork // World Chess: Online Magazine. - 2017 .-- January.
- ↑ Often the “barley grain” set stands out as a special type of chess pieces and belongs to the 19th century. In these cases, the emphasis is not on the shape of the chess pieces, but on their specific ornament , using the motives of barley - Ellison, Milissa; Dewey, Alan. Barleycorn Chess Sets and the Persistence of Craft (Eng.) // ChessSpy. - P. 1-7 .
- ↑ McWilliams, Barry. The Conventional Chess Sets from 1700 to the introduction of the Staunton Design (1849 ) . Eldrbarry's Chess. Date of appeal April 15, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ivanova .
- ↑ 1 2 3 Chess . Chess Strategy Online. Date of appeal April 15, 2016.
- ↑ 1 2 Apfel, Herz. August der Jüngere, Herzog zu Braunschweig und Lüneburg als Rector der Universitäten zu Rostock und Tübingen (English) . - Wolfenbüttel, 1854 .-- S. 4.
- ↑ Gareth, Williams. Chess. Story. Figures. Players .. - M .: Art Rodnik, 2004. - S. 65. - ISBN 5-9561-0103-2 .
- ↑ 1 2 Euwe, Max. "Selenus" (Germany ) . Schaakmuseum Max Euwe-Centrum. Date of appeal April 15, 2016.
- ↑ Selenus - Lunar chess . Salon-gallery Kadun. Date of treatment April 22, 2016.
- ↑ Shapes by default. Chess is both an ancient and a young game. International Chess Federation (FIDE) // Kommersant-Sport: Newspaper. - 2004. - July 26 ( No. 134 / P (2973) ). - S. 1-7 .
Literature
- Ivanova, Natalia. Lunar Chess // Site of the Russian Chess Museum. Archived July 27, 2017.